This invention relates to apparatus and methods for cutting vegetables and other produce particularly such as broccoli. More specifically, this invention relates to an improved cutter or trimmer designed to trim broccoli or similar produce items in a manner yielding small individual pieces of substantially uniform size and shape.
A variety of vegetable and other produce items are generally known to require cutting or trimming prior to packaging and/or shipment to consumer markets. Exemplary of such produce items are broccoli and cauliflower and the like which generally grow in the form of stalked heads having an overall size frequently exceeding the size of a standard consumer unit. Alternately, or in addition, the stalked head has a size and shape which is not conducive to convenient space-efficient packaging. Accordingly, produce items of this type are commonly trimmed to a required size and shape promptly after picking.
In the past, produce items such as broccoli and cauliflower have been cut or trimmed by the use of manual labor to insure relative uniformity in the resultant cut products notwithstanding natural growth variations in the uncut product. The use of manual labor, however, adds significantly to the overall cost of the product to the ultimate consumer.
Many different automated or semi-automated machines have been proposed for use in cutting and trimming vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, wherein such machines have been intended in large degree to reduce the requirement for manual labor in preparing the produce for the consumer market. See, for example, the broccoli trimming machines described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,658,714 and 3,646,977. In general terms, these and other machines for trimming broccoli and the like have included cutting knives for removing excess butt portions of the produce stalk and/or for longitudinally segmenting produce heads into quadrants or some other selected number of pieces intended to be substantially uniform in size. These segmented pieces essentially comprise broccoli heads of reduced size each defined by a group of broccoli fleurettes attached to a remaining portion of the stalk.
While cutting machines of the above-described type have performed satisfactorily for their intended purposes, they have not been able to provide certain specific produce cuts designed for certain market uses. For example, particularly with respect to broccoli, it is frequently desirable to cut the broccoli head into relatively small individual separated fleurettes for use in frozen food products, restaurants, salad bars, and the like. However, the top of an uncut broccoli head has a curved substantially semi-spherical contour, whereas prior broccoli cutting and trimming machines have been designed to make a variety of straight or virtually straight produce cuts. Accordingly, these prior machines have not been able to separate the broccoli head into individual fleurettes of substantially uniform size and shape. Instead, machine-cut fleurettes have necessarily exhibited significant piecewise size variation. Where piecewize size uniformity has been desired, manual labor has still been used.
There exists, therefore, a significant need for an improved broccoli trimming machine and related trimming process for cutting individually separated broccoli fleurettes of substantially uniform size and shape from a broccoli head. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.